Nine days until the NFL's negotiating window opens on March 9. The decisions that teams are making right now — internally, without public announcement — will shape how they enter that 48-hour period before contracts can officially be signed.

The most important preparation work isn't the list of players teams want to sign. It's the list of players they're willing to let go. Before you can build the market position to sign a free agent at $25 million per year, you need to know which current contracts you're moving off of, which players are being released, and how the cap space those moves create aligns with the players you're targeting.

Three organizations have been identified by multiple sources as likely to make significant cuts in the next 48 hours: New Orleans, which needs to create space to operate; Chicago, which has a new head coach who has been explicit about wanting to reshape the roster's identity; and Indianapolis, which entered the offseason with a quarterback situation that requires capital to address and an existing roster that is difficult to upgrade at the current salary structure.

The players most likely to be released and become free agents ahead of schedule: veteran wide receivers on large contracts at teams that drafted receivers in the last two years, interior offensive linemen on expensive deals at rebuilding teams that have younger cheaper options behind them, and nickel cornerbacks on deals signed during the 2024 market spike who are now valued below their contract number.

The macro picture: this offseason has more available capital than recent years because of the cap increase and because a significant number of veteran players on contracts signed during the 2021-2023 dead-money years have now rotated off the books. That money has to go somewhere. March 9 is when we find out where.